Author Archives: The Voice

Alistair Carmichael has taken the first step to defending the election petition filed against him by filing a formal “answer” with the court.

The answers make clear that he is opposing the petition, and that there has been no breach of section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983.

He argues that he did not make a false statement of fact in relation to the personal character or conduct of a candidate, before or during an election, for the purpose of affecting the return of any candidate at the election and that therefore the petition is “irrelevant” and that there is no basis to grant the orders sought by the petitioners.

You can read a redacted version of his answers here.

Good news from Wales – Kirsty Williams’ Bill which would stipulate minimum staffing levels for nurses has cleared its first parliamentary stage.

Nursing Times has the story:

If passed into law, the Safe Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Bill would see Wales become the first country in the UK with a legal duty on safe nurse staffing levels in acute settings.

Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Democrats, who originally submitted the proposals for safe nurse staffing levels in hospitals, said she was “pleased” the idea had gained support from all parties.

The vote today in the Welsh Assembly represents the end of stage one of the bill. It will now progress to stage two where it will be considered for a second time by the assembley’s health and social care committee and face a first round of amendments.

Under the assembly’s normal process, the bill would then have to survive two further stages before it can become legislation.

Kirsty is quoted as saying:

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 417th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (24 – 30 May, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

Jim Wallace, Liberal Democrat Leader in the Lords, responded to the Queen’s Speech with a gentle and highly noble jibe at Danny Finkelstein and was pretty robust in saying that if the Tories, elected on barely a third of the vote, tried to push through reactionary legislation, the Lords had every right to scrutinise it robustly.  Here is his speech in full: